


Lady Sophia's tales in Narnia - Prince Caspian

by ReginaRubie



Series: Lady Sophia's tales in Narnia [1]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
Genre: Caspian and Lucy friendship, Gen, Peter Pevensie love story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:21:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29839380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReginaRubie/pseuds/ReginaRubie
Summary: THIS I HAVE ALREADY POSTED ON THE SITE QUOTEV UNDER THE ITALIAN NAME (thought in English)Prince Caspian X always loved the stories of Old Narnia, of talking animals, great kings and queens of Old and the lady that accompained them in their adventures.So, despite all happening to him with his Uncle betrayal when those stories turn to reality before his very eyes he is overjoyed, but why are the two Narnia's fiercest protectors at each other throats?
Relationships: Caspian/Lucy Pevensie, Peter Pevensie/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Lady Sophia's tales in Narnia [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2193666
Kudos: 4





	1. Prelude and One

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, how are you all? hope you are all fine!
> 
> I originally posted this on quotev, thought it is not finished I decided to post it here too. 
> 
> This work is part of series named Lady Sophia's tales in Narnia and the main couples are Peter/Sophia (my original character) and Caspian/Lucy thought in this first installment of the series it is mostly a friendship (things will change in the Dawn Treader story of this series). 
> 
> Hope you enjoy readin this!

**PRELUDE**

**M** r Tunmus ran inside the great hall of Cair Paravel in all haste, his red scarf dancing behind him as he ran the steps that led to the great table of counsell and to the raised platform on which sat the four thrones.

“Telmarines!” he cried out “at the gates!” he panted. She whipped around, her lilac dress moving with her as her hair of liquid ink black hue ringleted before her carioca skin, her big brown eyes bulging.

“Quick!” she called “bring me a goblet of water for my friend!” she added running to the faun, mr and mrs Beaver followed closely as did Oreious with whom she was holding counsel. 

She massaged the faun’s back softly “Drink, slowly” she instructed “and breath” she added. 

“Are you alright, my friend?” she asked when the faun offered her back the goblet, he nodded still bended down and she gave the goblet back to the servant.

“I am afraid I am no longer as young as I’d like” he jested lightly, resting his hand over hers grasped at his shoulder “I will be fine” he added “but the Telmarines are here, at the gates and they brought the whole of their army - he added - and their war-machines” 

She looked up, exchanging a look with mr and mrs Beaver and then Oreious. 

“What do they want?” she asked, knowing full well what they wanted from her.

“Their king demands an audience with you” Mr Tunmus said “and threatens to attack without mercy if you refuse him” 

She looked at the centaur “How many have fled to the western forest?” she asked and the centaur looked down.

“More than what I expected but less than I’d like - he told her - there are still children and elderly in Cair Paravel, your Grace”

She felt mrs Beaver furry paw taking her hand “They would want for you to live” she told her “they’d want you to flee, live and fight another day”

“Nay” she said “they’d want me to defend our people” she replied “and _that_ is exactly what I intend to do” she turned to mr Tunmus “you’ll show this Caspian of Telmar inside - she instructed - while the children and elderly will be evacuated from the city” she added “I’ll hear what he has to say, then I will make my stand - she decreed - here and now and buy as much time as I can for the narnians to regroup and survive”

Mrs Beaver sobbed and mr Beaver came to her holding her close, she would have liked nothing more than comfort the lady because she had been by their side from the very beginning, but she had to do whatever it took.

She turned and watched as Oreious nodded “As you command, sire” he told her “we will await your orders” 

She nodded and watched the four thrones left vacant since they left to hunt for the white stag, four winters ago.

_When I return,_ golden light falling on golden brow and golden crown, cyan eyes as clear as the sky and a small smile on pouty lips, _there is something I wish to tell you._

She damned him to hell and back, for he had never returned. He had left. 

They all had.

She grabbed her skirts in her hands and ascended to the raised platform, for the first time in the years they have been gone accepting her role, then she sat on his throne, too big for her as too big was his legacy, but she’d die to protect it.

Her name was Sophia, she had been twelve when she had seen Aslan kill the White Witch and return from the dead, she had been fourteen when she had accompanied High King Peter to bring to heel the Giants of the North and she had been present at the defense of Anvard. Telmarines were in for a rude awakening if they thought her just a sweet thing. 

She was the lady of the Narnians and she would defend her people until her last breath.

* * *

**One**

**The Horn**

**C** aspian was woken by a disheveled doctor Cornelius, the man’s glasses were askance on his nose and he looked scared.

“I do not wish to go star-gazing tonight, doctor” he yawned “let me sleep” but the man was having none of it, hogging his covers and trying to make him sit up.

“Your aunt has gone into labour!” he murmur-yelled trying to shake him from the shoulders, but Caspian merely turned to the other side.

“Good for them, they always wished for a child” his sleep-fogged mind was readily falling back asleep when doctor Cornelius pinched him making him jump seated.

“If she gives birth to a boy” he said “you will be killed” he added “finally your uncle will have his heir and he will kill you the same way he killed your father! We have to make haste!”

“What are you babbling about!, have you drank too much?” he demanded to know “my uncle loves me, he raised me as if I was his own son. He’d never kill me and he surely never killed my father”

“But he _did_! He craved power, but he had no heir so he raised you, but if your aunt gives birth to a son, of Aslan saves us, it’ll be your death”

Caspian was about to threaten the teacher to make him leave his chamber when another hooded figure entered, closing the door behind itself. 

“Cornelius!” the woman exclaimed “what is he doing still abed! We don’t have much time” 

He could recognize that voice, it belonged to a young telmarine lady who had came to court some two years before as a lady in waiting of his aunt after the death of her parents. Lady Evergreen was her name, a strange name for a telmarine but Caspian found everything of the young woman enticing, from her exotic features to her accent and her attitude, though most believed her features to prove her unlucky.

“On your feet, your highness, if you do not wish to be killed!” she ordered urging him to stand up, in that same very moment a joyful cry resonated in the castle’s hall.

“It’s a boy! Lady Prunaprisma has given birth to a healthy boy!”

Doctor Cornelius and lady Evergreen shared a long look “We must make haste!” she said desperately “Come, your highness, your life is in grave danger!” 

“Stop mongering my uncle! He won’t do me harm!” he defended getting off the bed and making his way to the door, the moment he did guards ran inside, surprised to see him awake and armed to their teeth.

“Tell them…”he was about to start when he noticed the way they were holding their weapons against him, a moment later the closer guards fell on the marble floor as lady Evergreen hit him on the back of the head with the hilt of a dagger. She then shoved the next one out of the chamber and closed the door making it click shut.

“We. must. make. haste” she repeated “your life is in grave danger!” she grabbed a cloak he had left on the marble floor of his chamber and shoved it in his hands “Now!” 

Caspian donned it on as doctor Cornelius opened a secret passage inside of his chambers that Caspian knew nothing about as the guards tried to get the door to open, lady Evergreen blocked the door with a chair and followed them down the passage. Everything was a blur as he tried to understand that everything was true.

His uncle truly had killed his father and meant to kill him too to seize power over the throne of Narnia. 

He finally returned to himself when they were in the stables readying Destrier to run away. Suddenly he realized that everything was real. He was fighting for his life.

“Up you go, your highness” lady Evergreen nudged him to mount on the horse and he did only then realizing that there was no place for the doctor to ride out with them as lady Evergreen turned to the diminutive man.

“Come with us” he pleaded but the man smiled softly.

“I cannot” he said “besides I am more useful here - he added - follow the lady’s lead, she knows what to do, let her guide you and you shall be king, your highness” there was a note of fondness in his tone. 

Lady Evergreen took his hands in hers “I will come back for you, Cornelius” she promised.

“Do not, your Grace” he replied “it’ll be way too dangerous - he said - you lead our people” he added “and put the prince on the throne”

She nodded “Thank you” she said before turning and mounting behind him, wrapping her lithe arms around his waist to take hold of the rein “May Aslan protect you”

The Doctor nodded “And may he guide you, your Grace” he then turned to Caspian and shoved in his hand a engraved horn with a roaring lion “blow this when in danger - he told him - and help shall come presently”

He heard lady Evergreen snort behind him, but he accepted the gift, attaching it to his hip and nodding “Go, now, your highness - he nodded to lady Evergreen - your Grace, and long live Aslan!” 

The lady nodded behind him and then launched Destrier in a mad-run outside the closing gates of the city as it closed behind them they turned to see the fireworks celebrating his cousin’s birth. 

“Now what?” he asked, tears pricking his dark eyes. She sighed softly.

“Now we fight and get back your throne for you, your highness - she told him - now we fight for Narnia and for Aslan” before launching Destrier in another run inside the forest as the guards rode out to search for them. 

Caspian, as any Telmarine worth his name, was scared of the forest, their stories talked about talking animals and wild spirits in the trees that would haunt you to madness and kill you, but lady Evergreen seemed to know where she was going so he let her take the lead. 

Though the guards followed them too inside and soon a fight broke out “Watch out!” lady Evergreen called as she jumped off Destrier still in full run and unsheathed a sword from her back ready to fight, Caspian though was too oblivious to his surroundings just watching her readying herself to fight that he got hit by a branch on the forehead, falling off the horse in the meantime. 

“Trumpkin!” lady Evergreen called, her tone brokering no reply “protect the prince!” as she slayed enemy after enemy as if she was some kind of warrior, her dark ringlets of hair moving with her movements. 

“For Aslan!” he heard her call as she fought, Caspian was too astounded to do anything until a guard came so close that he believed himself dead, then the point of a small sword appeared from the man’s chest and he fell to his knees. A dwarf (a real dwarf!) had just saved his life, he had red hair and he was looking at him in distaste.

“What are ye gonna do, boy? Stay there and look pretty?”

“I am unarmed!” he defended, but the dwarf snorted and pointed his bloody small sword to the fight ensuing in which lady Evergreen was moving as if she was a dancer of death. 

“Aye, tell that to her, will ye?” the dwarf snorted, before bending and throwing to him the sword that had been grasped in the hand of the guard “Here ye go, boy - then he turned - for Narnia!, and for Aslan!”he yelled, launching himself in the fight.

Caspian grasped the sword in hand and stood up watching as lady Evergreen twirled on herself and held to sword point a guard “You are a _female_!” 

“I am _the_ Lady of the Narnians” she whispered “Chatelain of the High King - she added - and heir to Cair Paravel” then she swung her sword and killed him. So astounded he was by her declaration that he did not see the guard approaching and shoving him to the ground.

“Caspian!” she yelled as he fumbled trying to regain hold of the sword that had been knocked out of his hand, he heard the hiss of metal and the man fell atop him, a sword embed in his back “Get up and fight!” she screamed as she kept fighting. But Caspian didn’t see the sword in that darkness, his hand though fell on the horn at his side.

_Blow this when in danger and help shall come presently._

“NO!”

But he had already blown it, its call resonating and snapping in the air, old magic at work - not that Caspian knew of it - then everything became darkness as he was hit behind the head, lady Evergreen’s silhouette fighting the last thing he saw before fainting.


	2. The return of the King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Pevensie siblings talk and get transported back from England to Narnia.
> 
> What will happen now, how much time has passed?  
> What are Caspian and Sophia doing?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So how are you?Hope you like this chapter!

**2**

**The return of the King**

**“W** hat happened?” Susan demanded to know, turning on her seat with Lucy to a side and Edmund to the other, watching Peter pacing up and down the lane as if he was some kind of caged animal, his right cheekbone red and raw, still tender from the fist-fight he had engaged in and his blond hair in disarray as his fingers continued to find purchase in his golden locks.

When her oldest sibling didn’t reply she turned to Edmund who had just adjusted his hat on his head, he shrugged as if to signal he did not know why Peter had engaged in the said fist-fight, which was true. Edmund had just heard commotion and followed it finding Peter, lionhearted Peter, fighting four boys twice his size. He had jumped in, no questions asked. That was the kind of camaraderie the brothers shared after the wars fought side to side. 

“They bumped into me” Peter finally replied, to which Susan rolled her eyes.

“And couldn’t you just walk away?” which was stupid to ask, because they all knew that between the four of them Peter was the least one to back down from a fight. 

“After they bumped into me, they demanded  _ I _ apologize” Peter clarified and Edmund sighed, leaning back against the wall of the station. Susan sent Lucy a scathing glare when she heard their youngest sister murmur “legit” under her breath. 

“Is it so difficult to just walk away?, be the bigger person for once?” Susan demanded and Edmund snorted. 

“Aye, sister” Peter snapped “it is  _ oh so  _ difficult” he said “I am sick of being treated as a kid aren’t you?” he added. Lucy nodded, perfectly comprehending her brother. While Edmund rolled his eyes.

“Uh-uh” he quipped unhelpfully “we are kids” 

Peter looked at him as if to say  _ really? _ , and Edmund just shrugged.

“We haven’t always been” Peter said coming to sit between Edmund and Susan “It’s been a year, how long will Aslan have us wait?” 

Susan sighed “Perhaps it’s time to accept that our life is here, now” she said “maybe we will never return, you have heard professor Kirke’s story, he never returned”

“I cannot accept that” Peter snapped “I have to go back. I  _ need  _ to go back. I promised her I would return” 

Susan sighed “Maybe she returned too” she offered. 

“She vanished without a trace to never be seen again” Peter reminded her “besides if she had returned she would have reached out to us by now” he added “even if only to yell at me”

Susan clasped her hands together “Then perhaps she is living her life in Narnia as our heir now” she told him “maybe she found happiness. We will see her again in Aslan’s country. But our life is here now, it is due time we accept it” she added.

“I’d sooner accept death, sister” Peter told her solemnly, and to the siblings it was clear they were not before their older brother, but before the High King of Narnia, the Emperor of the Lone Islands, the Wolfsbane.

“Don’t be stupid” she snapped “we all loved her! we all miss her!” 

“Yeah” Ed quipped “but he  _ did  _ love her differently, didn’t he? Cut him some slack, Su” 

“Yeah, Su, don’t be insensitive” Lucy told her, but Susan was in no mood to be giving when her brother said such stupid things, thank you and amen “You know that if we had returned she would have been our sister in truth” 

“I am just saying what everyone is thinking” Susan defended “if he just had had the gall to actually talk to her nothing would have happened, probably we would still be in Narnia reigning happily, but  _ nooo  _ his majesty the Magnificent had to offer her a boon to impress her when asking to court her!” she waved her hand around “if he had had the balls to just  _ talk to her _ we would never have left to hunt the white stag!” 

“You are being hurtful, Su” Lucy admonished her, looking mighty older than the eleven year old girl she was. “He couldn’t have known what would happen - she reminded her - as we couldn’t have known the same way. There is no use to cry over spilled milk” she added “Aslan knows what he is doing”

Susan looked at Peter and had to look away when she noticed the tears that had filled his eyes. He was clearly deeply hurt by her comment especially since, knowing him, he was feeling guilty of the same very thing. She clipped her lips shut and went rigid, unable to apologize when she felt that  _ that  _ however hurtful, was indeed the truth. 

Looking away she saw the boy who had approached her in the streets coming closer and making a beeline for her “Talk to me” she demanded of her siblings.

“We  _ are  _ talking to you” Edmund sassed and Susan sent him a glare, but just in that moment Lucy did exactly the opposite of what she should have done (not bringing attention to their small group, that was).

“Oi!” Lu exclaimed “Stop pinching me!”

“I didn’t pinch you!” Susan defended, but Edmund had shot up beside her a moment later.

“I felt it too!” he exclaimed as Peter came to stand, ever valiant, ever brave in front of them ready to protect them if the necessity called for it.

“It feels like magic!” Susan said, grasping Lucy’s hand tight to her and taking Peter’s too, as always her brother did not begrudge her that small comfort and grabbed it right back, he then turned to Ed.

“Let’s hold hands!”

“I am not holding your hand!” Ed protested but Peter had already grasped his hand as they watched the station slowly dismembering before their very eyes until the train vanished and they were left alone in a cave. 

Lucy took a step ahead and then turned to Susan a bright smile on her lips, then both of them broke in a run outside the cave on the soft beach and inside the waves of the bright sea. Edmund and Peter followed them closely. They entered in the sea splashing each other and laughing as they didn’t do since they had returned from the wardrobe. 

As they were playing though Edmund asked “Where do you think we are?”

Peter rolled his eyes and shoved him playfully “Where do you think?” he quipped back but Edmund just pointed up “I don’t remember ruins in Narnia” 

All four siblings looked up to see indeed what appeared to be a city in ruins. 

* * *

When Caspian woke up he found himself in a small comfortable bed - too little to be built for men - in a room that seemed shrunk down two sizes too many. His head was killing him, throbbing and hurting and he felt almost suffocated inside the small room. 

“...do I need to sit on your head again, Nickabrick or are you done?” a male voice demanded and Caspian’s head throbbed even more strongly. 

“Stop being patronizing, Trufflehunter” a second male voice replied in kind “I am merely saying what everyone is thinking. The boy is of Telmar, he is no fit to sit on the throne of Cair Paravel. No son of Adam is” 

“I’d like to remind you that the Kings and Queens of Old were sons and daughters of Adam and his bone” the first voice said “and we have yet to see such glorious time again”

“Glorious times my beard, Trufflehunter! They left us and Telmar invaded, they reigned for what ten years tops? Then they forsake us!”

“You should have learnt your history better, Nickabrick” a third female voice filled with iron-will quipped. Caspian knew that voice although he never had heard her speak with such authority and distaste in her tone. 

It was the lady Evergreen.

“Your kind still stands only thanks to High King Peter’s mercy” she added “or you all would have seen your end together with the White Witch” 

“Aye!”he said “mighty thing he did, being merciful, but then he still forsake us. The king supposed to be our fiercest protector left us. Where was high King Peter when the crops started dying, where was he when Telmar invaded with its warmachines?, where was he when the trees hid so deep in themselves they forgot how to live?, where was he when the narnians were hunted by men and were forced to live hidden in the forests and…” his tone changed, softening a bit “my apologies, my lady” he said “I mean not to disrespect you, but High King Peter abandoned us, and  _ you _ .”

The slap resounded so strongly that Caspian had to massage his own chin as if he had been hit himself.

“You pride yourself in your memory, Nickabrick” lady Evergreen said “but you forget. High King Peter was called to Narnia to free it of the Witch spell - she reminded him - He must have been called back in his home world, or he would not have left us unprotected. I’d think twice before speaking naught of my liege in my face, dwarf” she added “because while he is away I am his eyes, and his mouth and his sword”

The door opened and Caspian - who had gotten up and grabbed a stick for the fire in the meantime - made a jump back, hissing when he hit the ceiling with his head. A badger strode inside.

“Oh!” it exclaimed “you are awake, finally” 

“You...you  _ talk _ ?” and just like that he was out of it again, fainting at the sight of what he had believed to be only legends and stories. 

* * *

They walked between the ruins, making way from the branches of trees and the wildlife that had conquered the once prosperous city. Peter felt strangely bound to this place, thought he didn’t seem to recognize it. 

As they walked he kicked an apple without realizing it and looking up the siblings noticed that all the tree where actually apple-trees, they were in a orchard, a orchard that had grown wild. 

He reached up and took an apple from the tree, red and sweet and he turned it in his hand remembering something that had happened what felt a lifetime ago.

_ The people of the Lone Islands believed women to be nothing but a lesser sex, a incubator for new men to be born. So they were treating Sophia as if she was nothing but a pretty thing that should stay with her mouth shut, making her feel unwelcome at their manse, to the point that Peter had had to convince her with the kicked-puppy trick to come to the great hall for supper.  _

_ He had made her sit to his left side, Edmund to his right, and as everyone waited for him to take the first bite to begin the meal, as he was the highest ranking man in the Islands as its Emperor he chose an apple from the buffet and took it. He didn’t love apples very much, but Sophia adored them. He refused to acknowledge Edmund knowing grin as he peeled the fruit and sliced it, before offering the very first bite to Sophia.  _

_ The fork offered to her, she gazed in his cyan eyes, her brown ones so filled with affection that Peter had almost blushed as she had gingerly accepted his offer and had eaten with small, dainty bites the slice of apple he had offered her. He was sending a big message, here, that Sophia was to be held in the highest esteem for she was the most important person in the room to him.  _

“I wonder who lived here” Lucy said. 

“I think, perhaps  _ we  _ did” Susan replied as she bent down and grabbed something from the ground, Lucy was at her side immediately observing the item Susan was showing her.

“Ei, that’s mine!” Edmund exclaimed, coming closer and taking the pawn from Lucy’s hand and observing it. 

“Yours? From which set?” Susan asked.

“Well I did not have a golden set back in Finchley, did I?” he quipped as if she had asked something stupid, which granted she probably did, but as always when passing through worlds the lines blurred and she couldn’t well say what was here and what was there. 

Lucy ran to the very edge of the clearing in ruins, her eyes were shining with tears as Peter came to her side, Susan watched him sideways, by the set of his jaw and the cold light in his blue eyes she knew he was steeling himself. 

Lucy returned to them and started dragging them to what remained of what seemed to be a raised platform “Imagine…” she began and with her words the hall of Cair Paravel and of the four thrones suddenly seemed to come alive before their very eyes. 

“Cair Paravel” Peter breathed out and suddenly he seemed to stand taller.

* * *

When Caspian woke up he was once again on the shrinked bed, his head was throbbing but he was not alone, seated on a chair too little for her was lady Evergreen. She had dispatched of her cloak and had braided her curly hair in two braids one that fell to her waist and the other behind her back, little ringlets of hair framed her face, her carioca skin seemed almost opaque in the dim light of the room.

“So he lives” she jested “how do you feel?” 

“As if I have walked in a dream, half dream, half nightmare” he admitted, his voice hoarse, lady Evergreen nodded solemnly. 

“I think I can understand that” she said “there some soup if you are hungry” she told him “you really should eat something, you do not eat since supper the day before yesterday, Trufflehunter made it especially for you”

“Who is Trufflehunter?” he wondered, his head still throbbing as he propped himself up on one elbow looking at her intently. She looked different,  _ ancient _ somehow. 

“He is our host” she told him “a badger, this is his home he has offered us shelter in” 

Caspian passed a hand on his face “the  _ talking badger _ ” he specified.

“Talking animals feel quite offended by such a tone, your highness” lady Evergreen told him “of course he is a talking animal, he is a narnian”

“A  _ old  _ narnian, you mean. Like they are real, not stuff of stories” Caspian said and lady Evergreen snorted, her eyes alight with mirth.

“I seem to remember Cornelius telling me you loved stories of Old Narnia” she said “it was one of the reasons I was led to you” she added. 

Caspian blushed when her sparkling eyes fixed on him “Well…I did, when I believed them stories, the savages and primitive talking animals and tree spirits and Kings and Queens of Old” he said “my people are right to be afraid of the forests”

Lady Evergreen looked at him for a long moment “I suppose they are” she said “but these people, they are  _ your people too _ if you wish to reign over Narnia”

Caspian frowned “I am the rightful heir of my father. Old Narnians are not part of my country” he said “though - he admitted - I wish they were”

Lady Evergreen nodded “Narnia is of the old Narnians, but after thirteen centuries of telmarine occupation this country is as much ours as it is yours. If you want to be king you shall have to give Narnia back to its people too, find a way to make all live in peace”

“Everything is true, is it not?” he asked “Aslan, the White Witch, the Kings and Queens of Old… it’s all true”

“Aye” she said “Aslan brought high King Peter, Queen Susan, King Edmund and Queen Lucy to Narnia to end the White Witch and reign on the people of Narnia” she said.

Caspian frowned. But she looked lost in thought.

“ _ Wrong will be right when Aslan comes in sight _ ” she recited “ _ at the sound of his roar sorrow will be no more _ ” 

Caspian felt as if he had walked in a dream indeed, because lady Evergreen was literally shining golden in the small room as she recited that old rhyme.

* * *

Peter watched his statue. 

Had he really been that grown up?, he wondered. He had felt off,  _ different _ in a way since returning from Narnia, as if his body was too little to contain the man he had become during his year of reign over Narnia, and if indeed he had been like that it was no wonder he had felt in such a way. 

Lucy spun around, a dress held to her chest “Was I that tall?” she wondered and Susan smiled as she braced her bow.

“You were older then” she offered with a small smile as Edmund tried on his favourite helmet, Peter turned and grabbed the heavy lid of his chest before opening it; in the crypt the silence had fallen as his siblings observed him. 

The first thing he took was his shield with the roaring lion.  _ Aslan _ , he thought, feeling sick because whenever they had come back it must have been centuries since they had last been here. 

He blinked away the tears in his eyes, then he hooked his hand under his shirt and brought out from under it a shining object bound to a leather cord and the tears almost threatened to fall down his cheeks as he observed it, it was ring he had, had commissioned just a few weeks before the hunt for the white stag. It was the only item that somehow had made it back to England with him. 

On a velvet cushion rested his crown and he was sure his siblings had their crown in their chests too. 

“I can’t seem to find my horn” Susan lamented “I must have lost it when we went back to… the other place” she offered meekly. Peter sighed and then grabbed his sword from the chest slowly unsheathing it. 

_ Rhindon  _ hissed as he held it high over his head, reminded of the first time he had grabbed it when Father Christmas had gifted it to him.

_ These are tools, not toys. _

“ _ When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death _ ” Peter recited as he got comfortable once again with the weight of his sword in hand, feeling for the first time as himself again.

“ _ and _ ” Lucy completed, Peter turned to her watching her “ _ when he shakes his mane we shall have spring again _ ” she wet her lips, looking impossibly older of her eleven years old. 

“Mr Tunmus, Mr and Mrs Beaver… everyone we knew, they are dead” she said as if suddenly realizing. 

Peter looked at Edmund and then at his sisters, they were all waiting for him to guide them. And he would so.

“This is our country” he stated proudly, once again High King of Narnia “let’s go out there and learn what has happened during our absence” 

* * *

  
“Catapults” was Edmund’s verdict “Cair Paravel was attacked” he added “most probably with war machines and such” he added standing up again and dusting off his clothes. Peter nodded, his arms crossed, his jaw set.

“How much time ago, you’d say?” he wondered, Lucy and Susan were collecting enough apples to last them a lifetime and until they found their people. 

“I wouldn’t be able to say” Edmund replied “many centuries ago judging by the way nature has taken root in the ruins and by the state of what remains of the citadel” he added pointing to what once had been the tower of the citadel of Cair Paravel “Pete…”

Peter turned his cyan eyes on his brother and waited “I’d say no long after we left” Edmund added “judging by the fact that only our chests were laid in the Treasure Room” he said carefully.

Peter nodded, fighting the tears off “I had imagined that much” he admitted with a soft sigh “she was my heir, after our departure she would have been crowned queen and if she had reigned long or in peacetime she’d have her own chest too” he added “she either returned to England but never reached out to us or she died, most probably defending Narnia from invasion”

Edmund nodded, looking as if he had been punched in the gut “Aye” he said “what do you mean for us to do?”

“Firstly we must find our people” he said “and understand what exactly happened, then we will bring Narnia back to her golden years” he said “as it is our duty” he added “Aslan entrusted Narnia to us, we should never have left”

Edmund grabbed his shoulder “You could not have known what would happen, Pete” he said “Susan was talking without thinking. It’s nobody’s fault.” 

Peter though just shook his head “I should have stayed behind” he said “I could feel as we walked back inside the wardrobe the magic snapping around us - he said - I should have known and took a step back. Instead I went on. And she paid the price”

Edmund nodded “Maybe she came back” he said “maybe she lost her memory, she didn’t walk in the wardrobe as we did, we don’t know how the passage could have affected her, don’t lose hope.”

“Pete, Ed!” Lucy called pointing to the shining sea “Look! A boat!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are! What do you think of this characterization of our favorite characters? What do you think of Sophia?  
> As always sending all my love -G.

**Author's Note:**

> So here we are with the prelude and chapter one. What do you think of it? If you want let me know in the comments down below!
> 
> Sending all my love - G.


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